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This is my first time posting something specific to the Community for this year's month of celebration! Thank you for the opportunity @Katie !
As the end of 2020 nears, I wanted to find a topic that reflected the assigned topic of pride in my units and practical advice that helped me thrive in a year that might have bankrupted our small business.
After three+ years in this business I do still believe that it is all about the little things whether we are experiencing a global pandemic or business as usual. We need to keep guests happily hosted by channeling our "inner guest". Creating a space that feels like a home away from home has been key to our success. We have accomplished this by focusing on the little things by staying tuned in to what is happening in our community and the current travel trends. For example, we put holiday trees in all of our units for the month of December and through the New Year to create a sense of home for our guests that are travelling during the holidays. I have included pictures of our trees here to share the joy of the season!
To keep in line with the little things for success each of our trees intentionally match the design template of our units. It does take a bit of time to set up, but our guests love it. We also make sure to post the pictures of our holiday cheer in early November to market to our future guests on Airbnb. We enjoy delighting our guests and take pride in doing the little things to make our units a little more like home during the holidays.
So now for the practical advice! Using the word TREE as an acronym for a process all of us can use to keep tweaking the little things to delight our guests.
Triage
Recreate
Edit
Enjoy
First step - TRIAGE: Yes I used the word triage! Why? Well if we do not keep a sense of urgency and assume that something needs improvement we can't continue to channel our "inner guest". We need to check in our listing details every few months to ensure that it is aligning to guest expectations and travel trends. For example, when the pandemic hit we purposefully changed the names and descriptions of our listings to highlight our cleaning practices and amenities that were important for creating an experience that was like "staying at home" during the pandemic for people that had to travel. This approach worked and kept us busy enough to pay the bills when things were really tough during the spring.
Second step - RECREATE: When it comes to marketing the industry is always coming up with new ways to say the same thing or to focus the attention of a customer on what is trending. As hosts we also need to do the same thing. This can be adding a new amenity to your listing that is in high demand or just focusing on a specific amenity during the appropriate season. For example, when people were looking for more outdoor activities during the pandemic, we revised our listing descriptions and picture order to highlight all of our outdoor amenities and the things to do outside nearby. The more we tweak and recreate how we describe our listing the more likely we are to capture more reservations using the features of Airbnb's platform. And guest expectations and travel trends change frequently.
Third step - EDIT: Once you have identified the opportunities to align your listing to guest expectations and travel trends it is time to edit, edit, and edit some more! This is really important not only for marketing to guest expectations and travel trends but to keep up with new features offered by the Airbnb platform. The continual technology changes here on the Airbnb platform are opportunities to elevate your listing in search results. It is easy to set up once and hope for the best - which works very well in a healthy travel economy but not during a pandemic or recession. Take advantage of all the features and marketing opportunities offered here by reviewing and editing your listing at least once a quarter.
Fourth step - ENJOY: Here is the best part! Enjoy the benefits of your labor of triage, recreating, and editing by experiencing more bookings that are not just based on the price of your unit but on the little things that you do as a host. Guests will pay more for units that align with new expectations and travel trends. This has been a hard year for all of us but you are still here, hosting away, so try a few new things in the New Year and enjoy a few moments delighting your guests. Maybe even take a trip to find your "inner guest"!
I hope my topic is useful to someone here in the community and gives us a little hope after a crazy 2020 pandemic year of business. Just remember to channel your "inner guest"! Remember all the little things you look for when you first check in during your vacation and use those to help focus your hosting duties here on Airbnb and follow the TREE process!
Happy Holidays Host Community!
